Display is Dying, But High ROI Marketing Isn’t!

Praveen Kumar

Mar 1, 2016

4 min read

We are all aware of the fact that banner ads are in deep trouble not only from a customer’s perspective but also the advertisers; who also complain about the ROI they get in return. Ad blocking softwares are gaining momentum to relieve customers from ads on every website they visit.

According to Digiday, You’re are more likely to:

…survive a plane crash than click on a display ad
…get in MIT than click on a display ad
…complete Navy SEAL training than click on a display ad

Even after talks of such gloom and doom about display ads, to be specific banner ads, growth in investment on display advertising continues to grow. Ad blocking softwares are unable to stop them. The reason behind is simple, the analytic softwares help marketers in targeting, retargeting, machine learning, and programmatic approaches to serving the ad units to customers based on their online behaviours and interests.
A survey by eMarketer:

What is Display Advertising and why is it in trouble?

Display advertising is type of online advertising in many forms like banner ads, text ads, rich media and more. It relies more on image ads, audio and video for conveying the advertisement message.

Some marketers complain that it doesn’t works as well, as compared to other channels or modes of advertising. That might be true in some cases but ultimately it boils down to how well the banner was designed and the way it was targeted. These complaints arose with onset of the new era of marketing- Content Marketing.

Most content marketers produce and promote the top funnel content, i.e., ebooks, free guides, articles etc. However, display advertising was growing on the back of mid funnel content- free trials, case studies, catalogs etc.

This has a problem because getting someone to the top of the funnel still requires some additional advertising expense to get them to the middle and ultimately towards achieving the ROI of conversions when the lead moves to the bottom of the funnel. In B2B communications, this process could take a lot of time ranging from months to even years.

This is the specific reason why most of the investment for the display advertising comes from B2C industries where the cost of display advertising is not much and where the journey  of the customer from top of the funnel to the bottom is quicker– could be days and even minutes in some cases.  

Other Modes of Marketing to meet your goals

As it seems outbound marketing continues to wane and more and more marketers are turning to content marketing and native advertising. While the native advertising can prove to be more expensive for most of the brands, we advocate for the paid content marketing which is more cost effective.

The cold hard facts that could be given to prove the worthiness of content marketing are:

• Most of the companies save upto 14 dollars in cost per acquisition for every new customer they get. It is a robust method of inbound marketing.
• Inbound marketing generates 54% more leads as compared to other traditional advertising. (stateofinbound)
• Almost all of the B2B businesses using the content marketing state that content is fuel across all the channels where they are present: events, social, demand generation etc.

67% of B2B businesses say that marketing the content is one of their top three priorities or higher, and hence spending by these businesses in inbound marketing is increasing.(kapost)

Reason why you should adopt Content Marketing

• 189 million of Facebook’s users are mobile only. (Fastcompany.com)
• In a study cited to gauge brand relationship, 64% consumers stated that they shared the same values on which the brand is based. ( a study by Harvard Business review)
• A study shows that interactive content such as apps, games, quizzes, blogs etc. generate more conversions 70% of the time as compared to 36% of the passive content.( White papers )
• Social Media sites and blogs reach out to 8 out of 10 U.S. internet users and accounts for 23% of their time spent online.(Source)
• If we compare interactive to passive content, interactive content has been more effective at educating customers about the product or brands (93% Vs 70%), differentiating from competitors(88% Vs 55%) and being shared by them(38% Vs 17%). ( White papers )

Custom content is what more consumers rely to as per a study( 61%), and they admit to buying from that company. (Source)

The key to a successful content marketing strategy is to produce great content that is helpful to consumers in achieving their goals and desires, and to connect brand to individuals in a memorable way.
It also means that you place your existing or new customers first even if it means that you refer them to businesses that have nothing to do with your industry. Display ads are undoubtedly phasing out and it is matter of time when we are not bugged by the visual ads but they will continue to exist or even grow until the B2C businesses feel their importance.

About Saffron Edge:Saffron Edge is a digital marketing brand with the purpose of assisting companies in improving their Branding and Search Visibility through Inbound Marketing.